Bellwood man gets 30 years in double-murder case

December 07, 2009

A 25-year-old Bellwood man who has spent more than seven years in Cook County Jail and faced the death penalty for two murders at a Broadview gas station in 2002 pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and was sentenced to 30 years in prison today.

Sammie Daniels faced two counts of first-degree murder. He pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in exchange for the 30-year sentence. The state also dropped a drug possession charge and two charges for possession of contraband shanks in the jail.

Daniels will receive credit for the 2,710 days he has already been incarcerated. He could be released after 7 ½ more years, said his attorney, Assistant Public Defender Preston Jones.

Daniels was charged in connection with the shooting deaths of 59-year-old William Easley Sr. and 42-year-old Pius Kurian. He was linked to the murders by a fingerprint found at the crime scene.

Assistant State's Atty. Maureen O'Brien said had the case gone to trial, the evidence would have shown that Easley was a customer standing near a cooler inside the Shell gas station at 2425 Roosevelt Road in Broadview when a masked gunman walked in and fired several shots at 6:41 p.m. July 3, 2002. The gunman then leaned over the counter behind which Kurian had ducked and fired several shots at him before leaving the store.

Both men were shot multiple times and died. A fingerprint on the counter matched Daniels, who had been seen near the gas station before and after the murders, O'Brien said.

"I wish that he could have gotten more years really. But I'm at peace with it," said Easley's wife, Henrine, who noted that she is looking at the end of the case as a "new beginning."

During Monday's hearing in Maywood she tearfully read a victim impact statement to Cook County Circuit Court Judge Thomas Tucker noting that she had expected to grow old with her husband.

"When he died part of me died too," she said. "Maybe one day I hope that I will understand. But ... after seven years I still don't understand."

That prompted Daniels to say that he had not killed her husband, his only statement during the proceedings aside from brief answers to the judge's questions.

Jones said negotiations before the plea were lengthy and neither side was fully satisfied with the outcome.

"This is the case where DNA consistently pointed to someone else being involved," Jones said. "We're not thrilled with Sammie getting 30 years."

O'Brien said the identity of the person who DNA was found on evidence is known but she declined to comment on whether charges will be filed against that person.

Even if Daniels had been acquitted of the murders following a trial, he would have faced up to 30 years for the two counts of possession of contraband weapons at the jail, Jones noted.

"It's been a long haul," said Daniels' father, Calvin Young, who still maintains his son's innocence. "One fingerprint...my son had been going to that store for years. I can't do the time for my son. I told him it was up to him. I would have fought the case."